life is good

Cold morning
means
time to get out the pick
and start warming up
by breaking into the soil


winter garden

here we come

Amazing Austin

I'm here in Austin, and have already been hosted by
John Green and Bridgette Reece, out in Sunset Valley,

warm and happy people,
who home schooled their kids
and love the Earth.

My first night in Austin, October 16, and I'm off to a musical revue at the Berkeley United Methodist Church, which isn't in Berkeley, but on Berkeley road out in south Austin. At least 20 numbers sung with charm, skill and humor by a batch of irregularly regular fun people, reminding me of Orcas Island, and Berkeley the "real" Berkeley.

My idea that Austin has got to be grand since it is called the Berkeley of Texas starts to come true right away. The next day in church, a passage from the Bible is enacted as a humorous "Judge Judy" bit, before the actual sermon.

The sermon isn't as amazing as those of Dick Staub back on Orcas, but almost none are. Check out podcasts of his sermons for a lot of fun, "even" with straightahead Christianity.

I helped with their garden, shown here weeded of an almost totally coverage with grasses and other weeds.

The lessons I gave Bridgette from the Anat Baniel Method, she found intriguing and relaxing and "fun."


My next host was Ted Norris, MD, PhD,  raconteur extraordinaire, in both the entertaining and the blarney senses of the word, a fellow permaculture enthusiast, and a great lover of people.


He introduced me to, among others,
Athena Jelik, master cranio sacral worker,


Leah LaChapelle, guide in Unzipping Reality and
creating the new community order
instead of the New World Order


and Sonora Lee,
who is my present host,
a fine music teacher,
a Waldorf enthusiast,
and a great person.




Here's a blurb I'm sending out via email about lessons
at her place:

Hello

My name is Chris Elms.

I'm setting up a winter time practice in Austin.

My summer home will remain Orcas Island, Washington,

a place a lot like Austin in its heady mix of creative and intelligent people,

though a lot colder and darker in the winter, and with a wintertime population

of only 4000.

I have certification in the Feldenkrais Method (http://feldenkrais.com) and

the Anat Baniel Method (http://anatbanielmethod.com).

These methods are brain improvement systems that look like "body work."

Extremely gentle, and with the aim and result of

upgrading the whole organization

and use of YOU

(not just shoulder or flute playing or running),

Not treatments.

Lessons, and you'll feel younger, taller, breathe easier, make music or run in easier and more pleasurable and effective ways.

My flyer mentions "high performing musicians" but anyone at

any level will find ease, delight and improvement.

(In any skill: dance, run, yoga, accident recovery, golf, tennis, walking, running, etc.

Amazingly, this also helps "thinking" and a child or adult's 

school and learning abilities will sharpen and improve)

And creativity will increase.

While I am staying with Sonora Lee, music teacher and amazing person, I'll be offering lessons at her place.

Directions are via: http://www.sonoralee.com/directions/

For these lessons, which some call Functional Integration

and I call "Neurological Upgrading", the costs are

Adults: $120 for one or two lessons a week; $100 per lesson for 3 or more per week

Lessons for adults are an hour, 45 minutes is working time… .

For children, the rates drop $30 in each category and are shorter.

If I come to your house, please double the cost. Though for special needs kids just starting,
the cost is only incrementally raised for coming to your house in the beginning.

If you know any special needs children, these lessons can make a huge difference 

in creating a life of dignity and lifelong improvement.

You don't have to have any aches and pains to get a huge amount out of this,

just a sneaking suspicion you could feel even more wonderful,

and many, once they have had lessons, continue for years, at a more

spread out rate, because they love the continued improvement, from poor to good to great

to even greater.

Austin, looking for this and that, and if you know anyone, send them to me:

I'm moving to, and presently in, Austin, Texas. For the winters.

I'm looking for an amazing living situation, perhaps of this sort: in a self-contained guest cottage, secluded and yet accessible to those who want to do my work. Embedded in a big garden, which I will help make even more beautiful. Perhaps rent is traded for work with a special needs child, or someone recovering from a stroke or accident. Perhaps rent is just rent.

A cooperative household of high level of commitment to now, nature and the work of Byron Katie to clarify "issues" might also be a delightful possibility.

Life is discovery. This would be delightful:
A mutual commitment to slowing down in life, to be present to other people, to ourselves and to Nature. Nature can be outside in the trees or inside in the bones and delight of awakened movement.

I teach awakened movement, and awakened communication. Not everyone wants to learn this. Good.

I am a Feldenkrais Practitioner (feldenkrais.com) and Anat Baniel Method Practitioner (anatbanielmethod.com).

I have trained for 224 days in the Feldenkrais Method, a combining of judo, physics and brain plasticity, and 200 days in the Anat Baniel Method, an expansion of the Feldenkrais method to amazing levels.

These methods using slowing down, reduction of effort, awareness in the present, a flexible attachment to goals (ie the learning is what matters and the improvement takes place as a by product), a delight in learning, and discovery, variation and resting to increase the brain's ability to enjoy and organize complexity. These all help the so called "body" function with greater ease and skill, and for us older folk, with a feeling a greater youthfulness and standing taller and lighter, and moving both more solidly and gently at once.

I plan to work mainly with special needs children (cerbral palsy, autism, ADD, brain injury), those brain injuried in accidents, and high performing musicians and athletes.





(High performing dancer, in part of her lesson)


This work is also extremely effective and relaxing and painless and neurologically upgrading for anyone with NECK, BACK, SHOULDER, HIP, KNEE, FOOT, HAND PAIN.

I love to create permaculture gardens and participate in healing the Earth and feeding myself and friends. I designed and got off the ground a 3 acre public garden in Sonoma, California called now the Sonoma Garden Park.

In the Summers ( April thru October), I plan to keep living and working in one of the world's most amazing and beautiful spots: orcas Island, Washington, in the puget sound, north of Seattle (north of victoria, canada, actually: way up in the nw corner of continental usa). a place of creative and amazing people cooperating and creating an amazing world together.


I like to eat healthy, some from the ideas in Nourishing Traditions, some green smoothie, a lot of raw, including raw chocolate and raw cheese, milk, butter, meat (ie. not a vegan). In no way do i demand or require others eat this way, but would at least like people interested and curious.

Want an environment where commitment to being present is central and the work of Byron Katie (http://thework.com)  is used when "issues" come up. I am a christian of a heretical sort, i.e. i believe the core of a decent and happy human life is the ability to "love your enemies" and "love your neighbors" (And love yourself). It seems to me that being present, and forgiveness are two sides to the same delight: it's all now, and what we hold onto that isn't now is the anchor that keeps us unhappy/ stuck/ afraid/ limit/ sick. My heart tells me that in no way would God narrow down the pathway to him to just coming via Jesus.

I Like to cooperate in the worlds of wakefulness and ecology and healing and transformation. Humor is essential: "I'm not perfect, and you're not perfect and that's perfect."

the wonders of now

always here
always free
always a shift
when we do it

Okay now: the importance of love, part 2

Sorry about pictures. blogger won't let me pull them up.

and oh, well.

loving what is, is a big big wonderful ball of liberation.

What does love have to do with anything?

Without it: we are in war with What Is.

With it: we can enjoy what is in front of us.

We can smile when someone gives us a hard time.

We can feel someone's pain, and not feel that we have to be in pain.
We can sit back and feel that person, if we do the Anat Baniel Work,
feel the nervous system, feel the breathing and bones and organization,
and help that person feel more alive, free, happy, at ease,

breathing better,
feeling more present
feeling free to do and be in new ways.

Options to be ourself:

this is what loving ourselves provides.

Options to be yourself:

this is what loving you brings.

And if love goes back and forth:

learning and growing
and
becoming.

Good for us all
if we can hang out in the world of
Now
and
Loving
What Is.

What do you think?
Questions and ideas, gladly received.

Chris